The Best & Brightest in Technology

Yaron Galai is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Outbrain. He served as the Co-CEO through March 2024.

Prior to founding Outbrain, Galai was Co-Founder of Quigo, Inc., a pioneer of Contextual Advertising for advertisers and premium publishers. He served as CEO and SVP of the company. Quigo was acquired by AOL in 2007.

Galai was also Co-Founder of Ad4ever, a pioneer of rich-media advertising technologies. Ad4ever later became a part of Microsoft Advertising, through an acquisition by Atlas, a division of aQuantive.

David Kostman is the Chief Executive Officer. He served as the Co-CEO of Outbrain from October 2017 through March 2024. He currently also serves as Chairman of the Board of NICE Ltd (Nasdaq: NICE); as a member of the board of Unity Software Inc. (Nasdaq: U); member of the board of TIVIT SA; and as Chairman of the American Friends of Natal, a non-profit organization.

Kostman was previously Managing Director, Head of the Global Internet Group in the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers after starting his career in banking at NM Rothschild & Sons; Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Delta Galil USA, a subsidiary of publicly traded Delta Galil Industries Ltd.; and President of the International Division and Chief Operating Officer of publicly traded VerticalNet Inc.

Kostman holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law (LLB) from Tel Aviv University and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD.

Ori Lahav is the Co-Founder and General Manager of Israel at Outbrain.

Prior to co-founding Outbrain, Ori led the R&D groups in Search and Classification at Shopping.com, which was acquired by eBay for $634 million. Ori also previously led the Video Streaming Server Group at technology company Vsoft.

A practical engineer from the Rupin Academic Institute, Lahav is a Major Reserve Officer in the Israeli Navy

Yossi Amara is the Chief Information Officer at Outbrain. Prior to becoming CIO, he served as Outbrain’s Vice President of IT and Security, where he established and scaled operations in cybersecurity, anti-fraud domains, IT and information systems. Yossi’s group lead cross-functional efforts/projects and drive business scaling driven by technology, automation and operational excellence.

Yossi also serves on several advisory boards for early-stage start-ups on various technology domains, with a focus on product management and scale. Prior to Outbrain, he served as Conduit’s Head of Security and Head of Amdocs Corporate Security.

Yossi holds a B.A. in management and political science specializing in international relations at The Open University of Israel.

Gilad de Vries is the Chief Strategy Officer at Outbrain, and has served in this role since January 2016.

Since he joined the company in 2011, Gilad has also held the roles of Senior Vice President of Products and Business Intelligence and Vice President of Brands and Agencies.

Gilad brings more than 30 years of experience in the digital media and technology fields. Before joining Outbrain, he was VP of Digital Media and Principal at Viola Ventures, one of Israel’s top-tier venture capital firms, where he led the fund's investments in digital media, internet and mobile startups.

Gilad served as Lieutenant in Mamram, the prestigious Israeli Defense Forces’ Technology Unit. He holds a B.A. degree in economics and business management from Bar-Ilan University and an MBA from Reichman University Herzelia.

Veronica Gonzalez is the Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel at Outbrain. In addition to overseeing global legal and corporate governance matters, she leads Outbrain’s corporate services function, which includes managing the company’s global real estate, office administration, and procurement. Veronica is active in Outbrain's various employee-resource groupings, including co-founding Outbrain's Women's Empowerment (WE) program, fostering a community for women's empowerment in our offices across the globe.

Prior to joining Outbrain, Veronica served as a law firm associate at Day Pitney LLP. She graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, and attended Fordham School of Law, where she earned her Juris Doctor.

Jason Kiviat is Chief Financial Officer at Outbrain. He joined Outbrain in 2013, serving in a variety of roles within the company's finance team spanning controllership, FP&A, IR and special projects.

Prior to joining Outbrain, Jason served as Senior Associate in the audit practice at KPMG LLP.

Kiviat holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Maryland and received his CPA license in New York in 2011.

Daphna Michaeli is Chief People Officer at Outbrain. Daphna has successfully led HR efforts for a variety of companies and carries nearly two decades of experience in recruiting, employee development, and training.

Prior to her current role, Michaeli was the Vice President of Human Resources for ICQ, where she developed and implemented policies for staff recruitment and professional training and development. She also helped define the organization's mission statement and spearheaded initiatives instilling core values of transparency and trust throughout the workforce.

Michaeli holds a B.A. degree in psychology and sociology, and actively mentors professional women who are both entering the workforce or have an interest in human resources as a career path.

Asaf Porat is Chief Operating Officer, leading Outbrain’s Business Operations and Business Intelligence Departments as well as Global Business Optimization efforts.

Prior to his role as COO, Asaf served as Vice President of Corporate Operations, where he led and supported a variety of strategic initiatives aimed at increasing the organizational effectiveness with an emphasis on operational excellence and corporate development.

Asaf joined Outbrain in 2014 as a business analyst and played a key role in the acquisition and integration of Ligatus, AdNgin and Zemanta.

Prior to Outbrain, Asaf was Captain and Squadron Leader in the Israeli Navy.

He holds an International MBA from Tel Aviv University and graduated from its exchange program with Johnson Business School at Cornell University.

Sarah Baird is the General Manager for Outbrain's North America business. In this role, she leads our commercial teams and is responsible for revenue growth, product adoption and setting the region's strategy.

Baird has held several roles at Outbrain since joining the team in 2014. Prior to becoming GM, she served as VP of Account Strategy & Operations where she built commercial relationships with leading publishers and advertisers in North America.

Prior to joining Outbrain, she was the Director of Business Operations for Studio One Networks. In this role, she ran the commercial relationships with the firm's largest advertisers and was a member of their deal team leading up to their acquisition in 2014.

Baird is a graduate of the University of Miami, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts.

Alexander Erlmeier is Chief Revenue Officer at Outbrain, responsible for global business development and growth across all regions and functions of the business organization. He is a sought-after partner for advertisers and publishers looking to navigate the future of digital media across the open web.

Alexander previously served as Outbrain’s International Managing Director, where he led sustainable growth and product adoption across international markets since 2019. With more than 25 years of professional experience in the online sector, Alexander originally joined Outbrain in 2012 to lead the German-speaking markets. Under his stewardship, the company’s Central Europe operation established itself as a high and sustainable growth market.

Before joining Outbrain, Alexander Erlmeier founded several start-ups, and worked for leading international companies such as AOL and Mail.Ru.

Stephanie Himoff is the Executive Vice President of Global Publishers at Outbrain, responsible for the strategic growth of the global publisher organization.

Since joining Outbrain in 2012, she has helped the company grow into a dominant market player, building commercial relationships with leading publishers and advertisers.

Himoff has over 20 years of experience spearheading the growth of internet businesses in Europe, working with innovative digital start-ups and world-leading technologies designed to help publishers not just survive but thrive in a highly competitive digital world.

Himoff holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco (Member of Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society) and a Master’s degree from IESEG School of Management.

Ayal Steiner is the Vice President of Global Ad Revenue at Outbrain, responsible for leading Advertising Sales and Commercial Strategy, globally.

After completing his Master’s of Business Administration and working for several tech-startups in Product Strategy positions, Steiner joined Outbrain in 2012, launching both the Australia and New Zealand markets. He later became the Managing Director of the APAC business and oversaw expansion into several new markets in Asia.

In 2017, he became Vice President of International Revenue, leading Commercial Strategy and Revenue across all markets outside of the United States before being promoted to Vice President of Global Ad Revenue.

Yaffa Krindel has served as a director of our company since April 2022.

She has served as a director of Ashdod Port Company, since May 2022, and also serves as a director of several privately held companies. Yaffa served on the board of the following NASDAQ-traded companies until their acquisition or merger: BreezeCOM (NASDAQ:BRZE), Fundtech (NASDAQ:FNDT), Voltaire (NASDAQ:VOLT), Syneron Medical (NASDAQ:ELOS), Itamar Medical (NASDAQ:ITMR) and Sol Gel Technologies (Nasdaq:SLGL).

Yaffa has served as managing partner of Star Ventures, a German-Israeli venture capital firm. Previous leadership roles included chief financial officer and vice president of finance at Lannet Data Communications (NASDAQ: LNTF) and corporate treasurer of Rotem Amfert from the ICL group.

She holds a BA in Economics and Far Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MBA from the Tel Aviv University.

Kate Taneyhill Jhaveri has served as a director of our company since 2021.

She has held the role of global head of marketing at TikTok since November 2022, overseeing consumer and brand marketing.

Prior leadership roles held by Kate include executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the National Basketball Association; chief marketing officer of Twitch.tv; head of consumer marketing at Twitter; head of brand marketing at Facebook and global marketing positions at Microsoft.

She holds an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from College of the Holy Cross.

Jonathan (Yoni) Cheifetz has served as a director of our company since 2008.

Yoni has served as a partner at Lightspeed Ventures since June 2006. He currently serves as a director of At-Bay, BlueVine, Cato Networks, FeeX, Personetics Technologies, SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ: SEDG), Theranica Bio-Electronics and Ultima Genomics.

Yoni holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the Tel Aviv University and an M.Sc. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the Weizman Institute of Science.

Arne Wolter has served as a director of our company since 2019.

He has served as chief sales and marketing officer of Statista, a leading data and business intelligence company, since September 2021. Arne was the chief digital officer at Gruner + Jahr from 2015 through 2022, where he led the digital business and further digital transformation. His responsibilities included the digital content brand business (including Chefkoch, Stern, Brigitte, Gala), the marketing platform AppLike, the Greenhouse Innovation Lab, M&A and the Digital Ventures fund.

Arne earned a joint masters degree in civil engineering and business administration in Germany and holds an MBA from URI, USA. After initial positions at G+J, he moved to Arvato Mobile in 2002 where he built the B2B business and was promoted to vice president B2B/B2C and member of the executive board. He returned to G+J in 2007 as managing director of G+J e|MS.

Shlomo Dovrat has served as a director of our company since 2009.

He is a co-founder of the Viola group, a technology investment group, and general partner and co-founder of Viola Ventures, an Israeli venture capital firm, both of which were founded in 2000. Shlomo previously served as the chairman of ECI Telecom from 2002 through its acquisition in 2007 for approximately $1.2 billion.

Prior to founding Viola, Shlomo founded and served as the president and CEO of OshapTechnologies (formerly NASDAQ: OSHSF), which was acquired by SunGard Data Systems (NYSE: SDS) in 1999. He also founded Tecnomatix Technologies (formerly NASDAQ: TCNO) and served as its CEO and president from its inception until 1995, when he assumed the role of chairman until 2001 and thereafter as director until 2005.

Shlomo currently serves as a director of Unity (NYSE: U), along with several privately held companies.

Nithya B. Das has served as a director of our company since 2023.

She has served as the chief legal and chief administrative officer of Diligent, a leading GRC SaaS company, since August 2023. Prior to that, Nithya held several positions at Olo (NYSE: OLO) including chief operating officer, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary, where she led the company through its IPO and transformation to a multi- product platform company.

Prior to joining Olo, Nithya held the position of chief legal and people officer at AppNexus, where she led the company’s acquisition by AT&T for approximately $2 billion as well as the integration. Earlier in her career, she served as an attorney in the New York office of Goodwin Procter LLP where she represented public and private growth technology companies.

Nithya holds a degree in Business Administration from the SC Honors College at USC and a J.D., cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School.

Liesbeth Mack-de Boer is Managing Director, EMEA, and responsible for the commercial teams in the EMEA region as well as revenue growth, product adoption and business strategy.

Before taking over the commercial leadership for Outbrain’s EMEA region, she was Managing Director for Central Europe at Outbrain and Managing Director for the German-speaking market at Ligatus prior to the acquisition by Outbrain. Previously, she held senior international roles at e.g. Sedo.com and Trusted Shops and has over 20+ years experience in global / international leadership roles.

Her entrepreneurial acumen led her to driving growth for multiple digital companies and building as well as managing teams for sustainable business success.

She studied commercial economics - international management in the Netherlands and additionally holds an MBA in Media Management from Steinbeis Hochschule, Berlin.

Andraz Tori is Chief Product Officer at Outbrain, leading the company’s product and AI teams to deliver on product innovation and meet the evolving needs of clients and partners. Before joining Outbrain, Andraz was Co-Founder and CTO of Zemanta, a demand-side advertising platform acquired by Outbrain in 2017. Following the acquisition, he headed Outbrain's data science department focusing on state-of-the-art recommendation systems.

Previously, Andraz co-founded Kiberpipa, a prominent hack lab, and hosted a TV show popularizing technology on national television. He is active in the Slovenian start-up community and is a co-founder of Slovenia-based investment fund, Silicon Gardens.

Yonatan Maman is Chief Technology Officer at Outbrain, where he supervises a team of 170+ engineers committed to creating and maintaining the company's advanced technologies and product solutions. Since joining Outbrain in 2011, Yonatan has played a key role in elevating the R&D team into a leading technological organization by incorporating modern practices and pioneering new capabilities to drive innovation.

Before his tenure at Outbrain, Yonatan was a senior software engineer at IBM Research, contributing to various research projects across multiple domains and producing patented inventions.